Pyramids of Mars

Used to hate this story but I’ve slowly warmed to it over the years the sets are beautiful the costumes Devine and the story is just such a good hammer horror vibe mixed with scifi

How long has it been since we had a story set in the past? Too long! The beginning of this story set in the Egyptian tomb is wonderful, there is hardly a better way to kick off a story tone wise. The actual shots of Egypt look really striking in Doctor Who. In fact I loved the setting of all the first three episodes, the very convincing manner house gives this story a unique spooky feel.

There is a surprising amount of genuine horror in Pyramid of Mars, especially the close up of Sarah Jane's face as she stares up at a monster in pure terror. Sutekh is cruel with his use of language, which does more to frighten the viewer than the usual threats. The robot mummies themselves are visually striking and make for a great additional villain.

Sarah Jane is given plenty to do in this. I especially enjoyed The Doctor being stuck in a mummy costume whilst she gets to confidently fire a gun! Sladen carrying the show for a little was a real treat. The way that our two main actors interact continues to be the heart of the show, never has the companion/ Doctor relationship looked so genuine, natural or easy. Even when The Doctor is mean to Sarah Jane they pull it off, many Doctors have tried that since with less successful returns.

I did not enjoy part four nearly as much as the rest of the story, it feels disjointed. Firstly, it was a shame to be taken out of that fantastic manor house setting - I felt like they did an amazing job of building that world and then needlessly dumped it for the end of the story. Whenever a character travels to Mars they have the sarcophagus portal effect which is very long winded and gets tired quickly. Secondly, I never like "solve the puzzle" scenes in Doctor Who, every Doctor up to this point has had one and I'm not sure why. I think it takes all of the drama out of the story, making it pedestrian and not particularly engaging TV.

All in all a good story, but the ending means its not quite the all time classic that everyone makes it out to be.

I literally watched the Tales of the TARDIS version a few weeks back but as I'm currently watching Season 13 I thought I'd watch the serial again. Just terrific. It's the little things for me like The Doctor going to 1980 to show Sarah what the future will be like if they leave, and the stuff with Marcus Scarman and Lawrence and The Doctor's alien way of dealing with that situation that is. And Gabriel Woolfe creates one of the best villains of all time.

Sarah gets a gun, we are introduced to the inimitable power of the Hand of Sutekh, what more needs to be said?

It's Pyramids of Mars, what needs to be said more? 4 is on his best, Sarah is on her best and the Villain is just *chef kiss*, such a good story. One of my favorites from the whole show!

⭐9.25/10

😍Superb → Essential!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

Next up in Season 13 is the classic and beloved four-part adventure Pyramids of Mars, featuring murderous mummies and a creepy villain. It's one of the stories frequently brought up as a wonderful example of Doctor Who's Gothic era, as well as one of Tom Baker's finest stories. Needless to say, this story draws inspiration from the classic horror film The Mummy (1932).

PRIMARY NOTES:

Pyramids of Mars wastes no time setting things up or building tension. It throws the Doctor and Sarah Jane directly into the adventure, teasing the main villain and including a murder attempt and a mummy chase within its opening 25 minutes. The opening episode is excellent at establishing the threat and the stakes, leaving the remaining three episodes to resolve the problem and tighten the tension.

Stephen Harris’s script is a delightful mix of contemporary adventure, ancient history, and science fiction, and this is why it stands out so much: the strong characters, memorable villain, and dark and atmospheric tone support the narrative. I really like how it plays with the idea of alternative timelines and actually shows us what the future would look like if Sutekh returned in 1911 (as seen in the key scene halfway through Part 2). The show doesn't delve into this topic much.

The four-part story flows well and has little padding, focusing on the problem at hand and the key characters.

Part 1 ends in a wonderfully chilling and classic murder scene. On a similar note, the Sutekh reveal followed by an explosion and the torturing of the Doctor is such a great way to end Part 3. The build-up, with the Doctor impersonating a mummy and Sarah Jane carrying and using a rifle, is my favourite sequence in the serial.

The story puts an enjoyable spin on the classic English manor setting by incorporating elements from ancient Egyptian civilisation, strengthening the Gothic aesthetic while still making for a fairly economical setting production-wise (compare it to the previous story, Planet of Evil). Even though the story primarily takes place in and around the manor, it consistently maintains its intrigue through various means.

The period sets and costumes effectively add to the mummy horror aesthetic. The robotic mummy servants are also a simple concept that has been effectively realized. Sadly, Christine Ruscoe’s design for the titular pyramid on Mars isn’t quite as convincing, neither on paper nor in execution.

Tom Baker reverts to his joyous and wise-cracking persona, yet he infuses the script with a sense of earnestness when necessary. Elisabeth Sladen, meanwhile, is back to being a more passive player with fewer strong moments of her own, though she does get a couple of fine scenes in the second half.

I like the duality of the Scarman brothers here. Marcus (played by the late Bernard Archard in one of the GOAT Doctor Who villain performances; he previously appeared as Bragen in The Power of the Daleks, 1966) is a pale, cold-hearted, and altogether scary human vessel for Sutekh’s will, while his brother Laurence (as portrayed by frequent Doctor Who guest star Michael Sheard in his most memorable turn on the show) is a well-behaved and highly educated man with genuine concern for his sibling.

Unlike the theatrically booming voice of Stephen Thorne as Omega in The Three Doctors, Gabriel Woolf brings a chilling and metallic quality to his performance as Sutekh, one of the best (if not the very best) one-time villains (until 2024, that is) featured on the show. Sutekh himself has a cool appearance, and his immense mental powers make him a truly formidable foe, similar to Omega. This makes the meeting between Four and Sutekh in Part 4 an iconic and memorable moment. Granted, Sutekh himself does very little beyond sitting on his fancy throne, but his sheer presence feels strong on a more mental level.

Peter Maycock's portrayal of Ibrahim Namin, the Egyptian villain, is a clumsy attempt to add a bit more diversity to the cast, and he's almost stereotypically villainous just for the sake of it, with a distractingly similar appearance to British actor Richard Armitage.

The only truly superfluous character whose scenes are nothing but run-time fillers is the poacher, who appears throughout Part 2. This character is played by George Tovey, the father of Roberta Tovey, who portrayed Susan in the two Peter Cushing Dalek films.

Egyptian themes serve as the inspiration for Dudley Simpson's score, which is one of his most intense and distinctive compositions for the series.

Even though there isn't a lot going on all the time, the sheer presence of the robotic mummies and the constant threat presented by the presence of Scarman and Sutekh mean that Pyramids of Mars maintains a high level of tension all the time. And make no mistake, whenever this story displays action or excitement, it does so in an intense and surprisingly mature way, which is partly why it was considered so scary back in the day.

What adds to the tension is how the Doctor is seemingly helpless against Sutekh in Part 4 (all well performed by Baker and Woolf). The final stretch is then a rather lengthy and slow race to the finish, including a logic puzzle in the Death to the Daleks style (Sarah Jane seems to agree).

The climax is an iconically ambitious sequence that is easily memorable thanks to the yellow CSO background and Marcus Scarman’s crispy demise, followed by the silly but satisfying defeat of Sutekh.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

This is the first time we've visited Mars on TV. That won’t happen again until The Christmas Invasion in 2005.

This is the second consecutive serial where Sarah Jane is the sole female character.

Where Have I Seen That Face Before?: Michael Sheard later appeared in The Empire Strikes Back (1983) and, quite notably for all Indiana Jones fans out there, as Adolf Hitler in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).

Gabriel Woolf later voiced Satan in the 2006 two-parter The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit, joining the small group of actors who have appeared in both the classic and modern versions of Doctor Who. He then returned to voice Sutekh once again at 91 years old in The Legend of Ruby Sunday/The Empire of Death (2024).

Tom Baker was reportedly not thrilled about having to appear in a few scenes in Part 3 in the mummy costume, as he wasn't directly recognisable in those sequences!

This story claims that the TARDIS controls are isomorphic, i.e., they answer only to the Doctor. However, in The Planet of Evil, we saw Sarah Jane use the TARDIS controls just fine.

A prime example of ‘70s horror-influenced Who with Four and Sarah being menaced by marauding mummies, an undead archeology professor, and an ancient god in a crumbling Victorian pile. The plot is complete nonsense, but it’s good fun nevertheless with a great villainous turn by Gabriel Woolf as Sutekh. 5 out of five stars.

my dad watched parts of this with me and could not stop laughing at the portal thing. great special effects.

Pyramids of Mars was a great time overall. Some of the acting can be a bit hammy, and some of the effects around those mummies and even Sutekh leave A LOT to be desired, but on the whole this was a very cool serial with some fun ideas, a cool villain, and a great adventure on the whole for the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane. I do feel there is a slightly something lacking to the story, in that a few tweaks might have made it even more memorable, and maybe this just doesn't have the effect on me it had on kids back in the day, but I still appreciate this story for its world-building and a pretty fun sense of horror and tension to it, along with some fun references at the beginning along with hints of big changes to come, all of which I appreciated.

A solid episode, for all intents and purposes. I didn't find it overly interesting, and was much too bothered by the Egyptian mythology inconsistencies to properly enjoy it.

Small side tangent, but the subtitles kept saying people were speaking Egyptian, which is not a real language - it should be Egyptian Arabic.

The acting in this episode is better than usual. The best part for me, however, is Sarah Jane's dress. It's very clearly emulating an Edwardian lingerie dress, and while the exact silhouette is a few years out of fashion and missing a lot of lace detail, it probably looked very close on televisions of the time.

I liked the parallels between the Scarman brothers and the Egyptian gods (even if the familiar relationship between said gods was that of father and son, not brothers). Their meeting was a heartfelt, well-acted scene.

I'll be frank, I don't get the hype for this one. Yes, Four and Sarah are a great team, but the plotline on this one really is a lot of back-and-forthing around a country estate while people get crushed to death between mummy chests. The first three episodes feel padded, and the fourth feels like they dumped a bunch of children's logic puzzles in to fill the time -- often without giving the necessary time or information for children watching to solve (seriously, what was with the measuring in scarf-stitches?). Some good scenes scattered throughout, but largely failed to hold my attention. Eminently skippable.